Machines for packaging of products currently on the market normally comprise one first conveyor device and one second conveyor device, which are set in series with respect to one another, are connected to one another in a position corresponding to a transfer station, and are designed to feed at least two continuous rows of products set alongside one another along a given path and in a given direction.
The rows of products are fed by the conveyor devices in contact with an alignment element set transverse to the aforesaid path and at a distance from the transfer station which is such as to enable each time transfer on the second conveyor device of a number of products equal to the number of products of a group.
Once the rows of products are set in contact with the alignment element, the first conveyor device is deactivated, and the alignment element is displaced, normally via at least one actuator cylinder, transverse to, and on the outside of, the aforesaid path to enable the second conveyor device to separate a group of products from the rows themselves.
Known packaging machines of the type described above present some drawbacks mainly deriving from the fact that said machines have a relatively low productivity on account of the dead times introduced by the displacements of the alignment element under the thrust of the aforesaid actuator cylinder.